I was confused. Ordilon was Yueld’s other moon, but what was this about a shuttle?
Murroux continued with his story. “I’m guessing Narcissa got picked up by the Rhya and brought back through the Fountain. There was no sign of her on Ordilon. I spent a few months looking. Or maybe she found a way to go planetside. Who knows? Either way, it was pretty clear that she didn’t want to have anything to do with me. So that was that. I settled in Maridu out of necessity. The Batalarians took me in and showed me some kindness, but they aren’t the most sociable people.”
“So you want to go home?”
“There’s nothing for me here. And Beesan’s looking pretty good in retrospect, so I’m wondering if we might strike a trade. I help you find whatever you’re looking for and you bring me back. Or, if that’s too much trouble, at least hand me over to the Rhya.”
I had a million questions for this guy and so did Ana-Zhi, but she wanted the rest of the crew in on it too.
“Let’s bring him inside so we can talk proper,” Ana-Zhi said to me.
“Are you crazy? We don’t know this guy. What if he is some psycho who wants to take us out and steal the ship?”
“You watch too many movies, junior. And, besides, you don’t know me very well. I’m actually a very cautious individual.”
She punched at the microphone. “We appreciate your candor, Mr. Murroux. How about we continue this conversation inside?”
He nodded. “As I said, I’d be much obliged.”
“Splendid. So why don’t you strip off your clothes and meet us at the airlock.”
“My clothes? Strip? What are you talking about?”
“Surely you had bio security protocols on the Valerius,” Ana-Zhi said. “We can’t have any accidental contamination of nasties aboard.”
“There’s nothing on Taullae that can harm you. At least nothing on my person.”
“Nonetheless, rules are rules. Strip or we’re done here, Mr. Murroux. We’re already running a bit behind schedule, so make your decision posthaste.”
He grumbled about it, but he stripped off his clothes and stepped towards the airlock. The guy was pretty buff for a castaway.
“Your hat as well, Mr. Murroux.”
After running Murroux through both a decontamination and a full bio scan, Ana-Zhi let him into the launch bay. Xooth was there with a 50/04 along with me and Obarral, armed with RBs. The rest of the crew—including Chiraine—hung back behind a blast door and monitored our conversation through the comm system.
“Welcome aboard the Freya, Mr. Murroux,” I said. “I’m Captain Beck.”
“Sean Beck? Are you serious?”
I had been a little afraid of this. Without my beard and normal hair style, I had no defense against being recognized.
“Yes, nice to meet you, Murroux.”
“I can’t believe I got picked up by Sean Beck.”
I quickly changed the subject. The last thing I needed was a fan boy. “This is Ana-Zhi Agrada, my first mate, and this is Obarral. The little guy with the impulse rifle is Xooth.”
“And we weren’t lying when we said he can be a little twitchy,” Ana-Zhi said. She handed Murroux a robe and motioned to some equipment crates that we could use as seats.
“That’s some story, Mr. Murroux,” I said.
He was still looking at me in awe.
Ana-Zhi noticed and didn’t seem too happy about it. “As I said, we don’t have much time, so let’s chat about what you can offer us.”
“What are you looking for?”
“There’s an Ambit node up here,” I said. “We need to find it. Quickly.”
He thought for a minute. “An active node?”
“Yes, we’re assuming so.”
“So it would need power.”
“Yes.”
“A long-term power source.”
“My understanding is that the Ambit’s been running for over a thousand years,” I chimed in.
“Then there’s only one place on Taullae it could be.”
We all looked at him.
“The zoo.”
Apparently the Yueldian Sky Reavers didn’t only collect trinkets from their raids on other systems. They also collected life forms. And they kept these life forms in a vast underground biosphere on Taullae. Over the past millennium those life forms had almost certainly died out, but according to Murroux, large parts of the biosphere were still operational.
“Have you been there?” Ana-Zhi asked.
“Not inside,” Murroux said. “The Batalarians are deeply fearful of that place. I figured they’d been around long enough to know what’s what.”
“But you can lead us there?”
“That I can.”
We needed to discuss this among ourselves, so Ana-Zhi parked Murroux in the holding cell, while the rest of us assembled in the galley.
Yates was the first one to speak and immediately expressed his doubts. “This is too dangerous.”
“C’mon, Virg,” Galish said. “It’s a failed zoo filled with the universe’s most lethal lifeforms. What could go wrong?”
“Everything. But, more importantly, how do we know that this isn’t a colossal waste of time? We’ve got less than three days left to find the Kryrk, and, thanks to her, no leads.” He was staring right at Chiraine.
“How is it suddenly my fault that a thousand-year-old data network has developed some kinks? I’m doing the best I can!”
“Chiraine’s right,” I said. “We don’t have much of a choice. We need to find this next node and hope to Dynark there’s a reference to where the Kryrk is stored.”
“Of course we have a choice,” Yates said. “We get paid no matter what. We can sit around and play four-tin monte until it’s time to go home, and we’ll still collect.”
“Sure we will,” I said. “Just not as much. Plus, don’t you want to find the Kryrk for the pure joy of finding it?”
“Now you’re starting to sound like your father.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. But it got me wondering—wondering what it was like being with my dad on a mission.
“Perhaps we could just do a flyover,” Obarral said. “We have a perfectly-fine EMR array to scan for the underground structure.”
Ana-Zhi nodded. “That’s a possibility. We could also scan for electrical activity.”
“Yes!” Chiraine said. “When a node gets disconnected, it continually attempts to hook back into
